Carbon initiative creates tax for a problem the market should solve

The text of the initiative begins by proclaiming its intent to protect our state's children and future generations by "quickly ... reducing" pollution and its apocalyptic negative impacts on our state.

This cynical attempt to tug at our heartstrings while also filling us with fear completely ignores the obvious fact that there is absolutely nothing the people of our state can do to prevent the carbon emissions of the rest of the world from impacting us. The initiative writers also ignore the fact (and hope you will, too) that our state's impact on global warming is so insignificant that even if we all stopped using fossil fuels today, the effect on climate change would be virtually unmeasurable.

Farther down in the initiative's text we see that among its many exemptions are fossil fuels exported out of state, fossil fuels used by power plants, and fossil fuels used by airlines. If the threat of global warming is so dire and immediate as they claim, why are there any exemptions at all? Aren't our children's lives supposedly at stake?

Striving for clean energy is a smart, worthwhile goal; one that market forces are already working towards. But cynically taking money from taxpayers on the premise of achieving what are actually unattainable goals is not the answer.

Dave Van Eycke, Poulsbo

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